Friday, June 18, 2010

Grandpa s/p 4 hour car ride

In spite of hourly stops on the road for a standing session, my grandfather arrived at my home physically compromised.

At the house we opted to keep him outdoors, and practice standing and walking until he literally stabilized and would be safe to perform stairs.

During his first few initial standing and walking bouts he was shaking quite a bit. The shaking subsided with subsequent tries and was gone after about 1 hour and 4 bouts of walking.

My manual treatment consisted of work to his left foot to increase dorsiflexion with the foot in a neutral position. He tendency in walking is to externally rotate it and ambulate with a very narrow base of support (his heels almost touching).

We later worked on step ups on the steps 5 times leading with each leg and after a rest went up the 5 steps using handrails on both sides. He made with a min assist and facilitation to his stepping foot's buttock to elicit depression of the pelvis.

I was not optimistic about his recovery and independence after today.